Well, it’s finally time to build a ‘small-form factor PC’ as I’m planning on using it to stream a TV signal around the house using wireless or Gigabit if the wireless is not up to the task. Of course I won’t be allowing my neighbors access no matter now much beer they want to buy me!
Anyway, I’ve never built one of these small computer thingies and need some help picking out the best parts for the job. I don’t care about the brand of any of the comment or the cost (within reason of course).
Here’s what I need:
* Quiet! A big must!!! I don’t want any 747 landing in my living room. Is there water-cooling for these guys?
* Needs to be able to Capture TV + Playback Videos/DVDs/XviD on TV. It needs to be high quality as most of the video outs to TV I’ve used in the past looked slightly blurred. While not a must if HDTV is possible then I’d also like to have it just encase. All this needs to be done in real-time and a remote control would be nice. But will have a wireless keyboard & mouse anyway.
* I need something like Tivo / Sky Plus, (e.g. Timeshift) Now this is also importance, since I have a cable box which only shows a single channel at a time I need to have the PC using some Infra-Red device change the change on this cable box! Can it be done???
* Wireless, of course & Gigabit Nic.
* What OS? Windows Media Edition? Linux Media (forgot its name)? Have no real preference just want something that will do a good job.
* Not to power hungry as it will be left on most of the time.
Just to get things rolling:
CPU – Core2 Due (preliminary benchmarks look very promising with codecs) These guys don’t create much heat?
RAM – 1 GB (just the value stuff tight timings not worth the cash)
HD – 75GB Raptor, left over since I upgrade to a 150GB. Might generate too much heat though in a SSF?
Anything else that might be cool for a multimedia center?